English Wars

The English Wars (1801-1814) were a series of naval conflicts between Great Britain and Denmark that lasted from 1801 to 1814, during the Napoleonic Wars. Denmark was often pressured by France into committing acts of hostility against Great Britain, so Britain twice attacked Copenhagen (1801, 1807) and also sunk Danish fleets.

Background
Great Britain's Royal Navy was the dominant force at sea since 1588, when they destroyed the Spanish Armada. As an island nation, Great Britain depended on their navy for defense and attack, as well as for their economy. During the Napoleonic Wars (1796-1815), Britain made only a margin of their income through taxation and trade; much of their income came through raiding Spanish and French shipping overseas. They cut off trade routes and plundered all merchantmen that passed by, resulting in a large payroll for the British sailors.

Denmark, meanwhile, was a minor naval power. They had defeated the Swedes at sea in the 1650s-1670s during the Northern Wars, but they were not a strong force and had yet to prove themselves as the master of the North Sea or the Baltics. Russia took over naval dominance in the region, but as Denmark was either their ally or friend on many occasions, there was no contact between the two navies.

However, Danish naval superiority became a nightmare for Britain during the French Revolutionary Wars, when France began to pressure many powers in Europe to form the League of Armed Neutrality against Britain. They passed a Continental System act that prohibited trade with Britain, forming a trade embargo. Many European nations were forced to abide by these laws, or else they would face the world's best army at the time - the Grande Armee.

In 1801, Denmark joined the League of Armed Neutrality, sponsored by Russia. Great Britain responded to this by sending a fleet under Admiral Horatio Nelson to destroy the Danish fleet at Copenhagen. The Battle of Copenhagen resulted in a major British naval victory, and started a contest between Denmark and Britain over the seas. Because the wars were provoked by France, an enemy of Britain, the English Wars were a sideshow of the Napoleonic Wars.

Background
In 1805, Emperor Napoleon I mobilized troops at Boulougne in northern France to invade Great Britain and capture London, ending the last major threat to his country. However, Britain convinced Austria, Russia, Sweden, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and Portugal to form an alliance against Napoleon to bring down his empire and re-draw the maps of Europe. The British navy under Admiral Horatio Nelson captured French and Spanish shipping in the Bay of Biscay and off the coast of Basque Country and Portugal, even making incursions into India and Africa to attack French, Spanish, and Dutch ships.

In later 1805, Britain responded to France's attempts to enforce a trade embargo on Britain by creating their own system of embargo on France. King George III of Great Britain offered other countries technology in exchange for the countries breaking their vows with France. The Third Coalition and Prussia already swore France as their enemies, but Britain was able to convince many German states and the Ottoman Empire to stop trade with France, cutting their income. However, Portugal, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Hessen, and Denmark-Norway refused to stop their trade with France, as they made money off of their agreements. Portugal was a British ally; Mecklenburg-Schwerin was friendly towards Britain; Hessen was land-locked; it seemed that the only nation that Britain could turn into an example would be Denmark.

Anglo-Danish War of 1805
The British admiral Nelson located a Danish fleet at Calcutta in India in September, and when he attacked, the Danish fleet withdrew and the city was captured. Denmark became hostile and declared war on Britain, who promptly destroyed their Mediterranean and North Seas trading fleets. Angered and horrified, King Christian VII of Denmark (in fact dominated by his son Christian as regent) called on all Danish fleets to return home. The British responded to this by attacking Admiral Mathies Svendsen's fleet in Denmark's home waters in the Kattegat Strait at Lonstrup and decimated it.

The destruction of Svendsen's fleet allowed Britain to mount pressure on Denmark. Two fleets under admirals George Elphinstone/William Cornwallis and Sir John Jervis attacked Danish shipping in the Baltic Sea, and Jervis blockaded the port of Aalborg. Aalborg was defended by four Danish ships under Harm Andersen, whose fleet was completely composed of merchantmen. Eventually, Danish troops under General Malte Kaustrop were dispatched to occupy Aalborg, forcing the British to abandon their blockade of the harbor, but they were able to blockade trade routes.

With no British fleet in sight, Admiral Andersen's 4 Danish merchantmen made a run for the safety of Norway. At the same time, the Norwegian port of Stavanger was under blockade by Admiral George Elphinstone and 5 British ships. Jervis attacked the Danish in the Kattegat Strait, but Andersen was able to outmaneuver him and they fled closer to Norway. With his men tired, Andersen was forced to wait for weeks before moving again. Before he could do so, Elphinstone launched an attack on his fleet. As the battle was located in the middle of nowhere (hundreds of miles north of the Shetland Islands but too far off the coast of Norway), the battle was known as the Battle of Andersen's Market rather than the Action of Late December 1805. The British fleet destroyed the merchantmen and Elphinstone returned to the blockade of Stavanger - Jervis' idle ships returned to raiding Danish trade routes.

That same month, Britain took steps to drive the war to Denmark's people on land. For months, they had been assembling an army in London under General Arthur Wellesley, who was sent back home from Brittany after suffering from an assassination attempt early in 1805. Wellesley took command of an expedition of 16,700 troops and was shipped to Norway in late December, but only made a base camp before encamping on the snowy shores. "Wellesley's Landing" is located near the city of Langesund.

General Christian Brahe sought the perfect chance to wipe the British out before they could reach the well-defended city of Christiania. With 16,400 Dano-Norwegian troops, Brahe marched south to attack the British base camp. Despite 7,390 losses, the British were able to inflict 11,910 losses on the Danish army and won the battle; Brahe was killed. The Danish army was still intact, but in early January 1806 the British bypassed them and conquered Christiania without a fight. General Broder Johannsen took command of the Danish army and lived off the land, but Wellesley did not want to risk any major losses in another battle. Shortly after, Admiral Kjeld Guildenstern's Danish fleet of 2 ships left Stavanger, relinquishing the dockyards to Britain.

Guildenstern's fleet made it to the Baltics, but Admiral John Jervis and a fleet of 6 ships attacked them off the island of Laeso in late March 1806. The Danish fleet was destroyed with no British losses, and Britain gained the 32-gun frigate "Delmenhorst", renamed "HMS Christiania" in honor of the Norwegian campaign.

With his last fleet sunk and Aalborg blockaded, King Christian VII had no way of stopping Britain from taking over his sea routes. Denmark had no trade income, and they had to deal with the burdening upkeep of General Kaustrop's huge army in Copenhagen. They had only 8,000 krones left in their treasury, and they struggled to find a solution to the war. Britain demanded that they surrender - they proposed that Denmark give them 8,000 krones and start a trade embargo against France. Denmark duly refused the offer and war resumed.